


The One Where Azari Really Didn’t Need to Hear It (But Somehow Did Anyway)

by TGP



Series: Interspecies Mating Rituals [5]
Category: Next Avengers
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, Original Character - Freeform, Teenage Drama, teenagers being teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:32:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TGP/pseuds/TGP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I am not outgoing,” Torunn murmurs with an odd quiet to her voice. “Like you, I hold affection for that which I have yet to approach.”</p>
<p>And… okay, maybe this is worth it. Azari feels his lips draw into a smirk. Finding things to tease Torunn about is always hard. Here’s a golden opportunity!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Azari Really Didn’t Need to Hear It (But Somehow Did Anyway)

Azari has bad luck. He really does. He’s not sure why, but bad luck follows him wherever he goes. He thinks maybe it has something to do with his powers or his ancestry (one could not help but think his parents had bad luck, too, which all that happened to them) or maybe even just his soul. In any case, it always strikes at the worst time because why not.

 

The Soap Girl (Azari has known her for going on two years but he’s never really learned her name) is in distressing spirits. She leans over her counter, head resting on a raised fist, and sighs longingly as she and Torunn chatter about some guy she likes. Now, Soap Girl is nice enough but Azari really doesn’t care about her boy troubles. He just wants to get Tony’s bartering over with so he can get back to the most epic game of Capture the Flag in the history of gaming.

 

“-doesn’t even _notice_ me,” Soap Girl whined out, giving Torunn the worst puppy eyes. “He just comes in and I’m this blank slate he doesn’t look at. I don’t even think he knows my _name_.”

 

Torunn nods sagely, as if she has any idea about this girly stuff and maybe Azari is wrong and she actually does. She _is_ a girl. He guesses. Maybe. She’s never seemed like much of a girl to him. Not with how often she beats the crap out of them all.

 

“Perhaps you should be more forceful in your affections,” Torunn suggested and Azari thinks she’s getting better at talking like an Asgardian.

 

“No way!” the girl laments. “No, I couldn’t do that. It’d be too embarrassing… I’m not nearly as outgoing as you.”

 

Torunn snorts a little and leans into the counter, folding her arms over her armored chest. Azari sighs from outside the half open door. Looks like she’s settling in for the long haul.

 

“I am not outgoing,” Torunn murmurs with an odd quiet to her voice. “Like you, I hold affection for that which I have yet to approach.”

 

And… okay, maybe this is worth it. Azari feels his lips draw into a smirk. Finding things to tease Torunn about is always hard. Here’s a golden opportunity!

 

“You should tell him!!” the Soap Girl says, grinning brightly. “Someone like you should have no problem! I mean, who’s going to turn down one of the _Avengers?_ ”

 

Torunn smiles but it’s a sad sort of thing as she shrugs one shoulder. “One of the _other_ Avengers?”

 

The Soap Girl gasps and Azari can’t help blinking. Wait. Wait, one of… He narrows it down immediately to Hawkeye because… Well, the rest of them are all brothers in arms. Hawkeye’s the only one they weren’t raised with. It has to be him. Azari refuses to think of it any other way because they’re siblings and that’s gross and he is _not_ thinking about his sister that way, he is _not_.

 

“That’s so romantic!” Soap Girl swoons, a hand at her mouth. “Charming you with his fighting prowess and righteousness… Oh!”

 

“…Right. That’s exactly how it happened,” Torunn drawls with a disparaging snort. “The stories of our battles will reach far and be told for generations.”

 

“Spill. You have to give me details now,” Soap Girl edges and Azari finds himself paying even closer attention. He wants to know just who it is that got his sister’s attention.

 

Torunn gives the girl an unsure look. “It is not an exciting tale. You will be bored with my narrative.”

 

“Oh hush, there’s always the good part-”

 

And then someone hits Azari square in the middle of his back. He topples forward into the door, ricocheting off into the shop. Both girls stare at him and Torunn’s cheeks go red with offense as Pym skips in after him.

 

“Dude, what’s the hold up? If Hawkeye wins this game, I swear I will short sheet your bed,” Pym chirps out and Azari glares at him but his gaze gets drawn back to Torunn because… She’s looking at him like he stole something from her. Like she’s angry and disappointed. He suddenly feels terrible guilt and he’s not really sure why.

 

Torunn moves past them without another word and Soap Girl gives them both a glare.

 

“Jerks,” she growls out and while she does the exchange with Azari, he’s pretty sure she shorted him. He leaves with his head down and promises Pym to get back to the game as soon as he’s dropped off Tony’s things.

 

However, when he’s standing outside the lab, Azari pictures Torunn’s face and knows he needs to fix that first. He and Torunn probably get along better than any of the others. They’ve always been similarly minded and just as ready to get vicious. Azari likes kidding around with her more than pulling pranks with Pym. She’s got an easy going nature, even with her Asgardian aspirations. Azari can’t let… whatever this is sit. He has to find her.

 

It takes depressingly longer to track Torunn down than he’d hoped. She’s up at her outlook, of _course_ she is, where else? The sword she grew into makes swift arcs through the air, slicing with deadly easy. Her body moves smoothly from one motion to the next as she follows the routine Tony taught her as a child when she wished to follow in her mother’s footsteps, rather than her father’s. Azari watches her a while until the aggression leaks out and then it’s just training and not some way to relieve her frustration. Only then does he step out into the open.

 

“Hey,” he greets.

 

Torunn glances at him and she’s still pissed. She turns from him and sits down to examine her blade for nicks she’ll need to work out of it later. “What do you want, sneaky rat?”

 

“I’m sorry,” Azari murmurs with a faint flinch at the insult. It’s not that it’s a terrible one (she’s come up with much, much better over the years) but that she _means_ it. “I shouldn’t have spied.”

 

“That was a private conversation. You have invaded my privacy. No, you should not have.”

 

Her words are clipped and controlled and angry. Azari deserves it. He rubs his arm a bit and then slowly comes over to sit next to her. Torunn pointedly ignores him as she rubs the edge of her nail along the sharp blade.

 

“I’m sorry, Tor,” he tries again, quieter. “I wasn’t thinking. I just… kinda wanted to know who you liked.”

 

“Why?” Torunn gives him a look that’s hard to interpret. She looks… sad maybe? Angry. Hurt, even. “Why would my affections matter to you?”

 

“Because you’re my sister and I care about you?” Because he does. Azari loves the mess he calls family and he hates that he’s made her sad. “I mean, maybe I can help. Help you get this guy, anyway.”

 

Torunn snorts. She glances to her sword and smiles but it doesn’t seem quite happy. More… Well, he’s not really sure. It’s not a good smile and it makes his chest clench up.

 

“You are a good brother,” she says after a little while before shifting to lean over and rest her head against his shoulder. “Thank you.”

 

Azari nods and forgets about the game because this is more important. They sit and watch the sky for a while, quiet and calm. It’s nice and warm and reminds him of when they lived in the dome within the tropical paradise Tony had made for them. He hasn’t had many times of closeness like that since they left. Everything’s so busy and they’ve gotten caught up in the city and its workings…

 

“So,” Azari asks after a long while. “Is it Dr. Banner?”

 

And Torunn hits him with an exasperated noise but he was kind of expecting that.


End file.
